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30 Days of Winter: Day 17 - Pre Golden Age comics...

I wanted to post something for today and am embarrassed it took me so long to realise the perfect choice, one of the most genuinely groundbreaking, and visually arresting graphic format stories of all time

I mean, of course

Little Nemo in Slumberland.

Be warned LARGE images (gathered from hither and yon on the interwebs) under the cut....

Debuting in 1905 in the New York Herald, and the brainchild of the the legendary Winsor McCay, Little Nemo was like nothing before it, and little afterwards. Not even really a children's story, it details the strange, outlandish and surreal dreams (eg normal) of a little boy named Nemo, who visits the realms of Slumberland (or other strange, exotic locales) whenever he falls asleep, summoned to play with The Princess of Slumberland by her father, King Morpheus, and aided and hindered by a strange cast, including Flip (Son of the Sun, nephew of the Dawn) first Nemo's rival, then ally, then friend, and the Imp (I should note in advance that the Imp is a racial stereotype of a sort long since gone (I hope). Defenders of the strip note that he's a lot LESS offensive than most, since his appearance is derogatory, but he's not picked on, or looked down on, and Nemo and Flip are just as likely to make fools of themselves as Impie, but I leave others to make their own personal judgements on that one.)

Always a page long, McCay experimented with the confines of his medium in ways that would set the standard for decades to follow.

Here are a few samples of the rich, lucious lines and colours that McCay used

And here is an example of the linework. Even without the colours it's a remarkable piece of work.

Nemo became Public domain in the USA in 2005, and so was too late to appear in Gaiman's Sandman, though I'm sure that a story featuring him in that run would have be awesome beyond words. (A collection of text short stories set in The Dreaming DOES feature a young man who has a very similar series of adventures, meeting 7 most unusual beings in the process, it's rather good...)

There was a, not bad, but nothing special, animated movie made of Little Nemo a good few years ago now, but there was also, as his_spiffynesss pointed out below, a test pitch by the legendary Studio Ghibli to put together a animated feature, which alas never got further than this beautiful test.

Enjoy...

And there's the extremely memorable "Walking Bed" image which has even seen an homage in... well, it's me doing the posting,what do YOU think....

I went to a lot of animation festivals in the 90's, and I remember seeing one short--I can't remember the name of it now, and Google is not being my friend--that was done very mucn in a Little Nemo style. This particular short featured a police officer--a bobby, specifically--trying to deal with issues on his beat. At least, that's what my faulty memory tells me.

Speaking of Superman - did you ever see the homage that Stuart Immonen did to Little Nemo in a Superman annual? It was fantastic. (And a huge testimony to Immonen's talent, that he could pull it off so well.)

Thanks for this. You're so right, there's no-one like McCay - his page layouts are so clever, and so fun. It really feels like he's having a ball. And considering how early this is (pretty much the first full-page comic) he invented the form and used every inch of it's potential as he was exploring it. Amazing work.

Absolutely. I love the energy he brings to the page. The ability that man had to visualize full and alive characters and worlds is simply...it's just...no one else quite matches him! It's incredible how much comics today are still influenced and shaped by his innovations (I mean, he invented his own kind of animation before anybody else did! just for FUN RAHRGH)...and how little people are aware of him. A real pity. Nemooooo :D

"Nemo became Public domain in the USA in 2005, and so was too late to appear in Gaiman's Sandman, though I'm sure that a story featuring him in that run would have be awesome beyond words. (A collection of text short stories set in The Dreaming DOES feature a young man who has a very similar series of adventures, meeting 7 most unusual beings in the process, it's rather good...)"

Also, the dreams Brute and Glob cause in Jeb's head are reminiscent of McKay's stuff, down to the panel numbering.

Holy crap, that is GORGEOUS! It's a crime against humanity that they never made that - I would have loved to have seen what they would have done with the larger cast of characters, like Flip and the Princess. And always good to see new Little Nemo comics. Great post!

Well, you never know, it might be. Studio Ghibli is pretty hot stuff these days, and now that the strip itself is in the public domain, I bet they could get it done. One thing they'd have to remember, though, is to not make the film quite as... BENIGN as their stuff usually is. I mean, Little Nemo's adventures definitely had a sort of childlike magic to them, but a good deal of them actually wound up as nightmares. Look at that giant turkey strip - sure, it's got a funny element to it, but it's a giant turkey trying to catch the kid and eat him - if you actually dreamed about that, it would be a nightmare for sure and certain. Hell, the first year or so of the strip, if I remember correctly, consisted pretty much entirely of Nemo trying to reach Slumberland to meet the princess, but every time his dreams turned into nightmares and woke him up before he could get there. That clip would be a very good start, but they'd have to maintain that balance between 'WHEEEE!' and 'AAAHHH, HELLLLP!' pretty consistently.

They wouldn't have a PROBLEM with it, no, but Miyazaki seems to focus more and more on the harmless and friendly these days, which would not be an advantage in this case. He used to feature some great scenery-chewing villains in his movies, but those have all dropped by the wayside now, and what a Little Nemo film would really need is a central threat.

I agree, the combination of delight and terror is crucial to Nemo! It's a spot-on way to portray the mental world of childhood as well as dreams. That turkey comic...brrr. One of McKay's other strips, the Rarebit Fiend, leans really heavy on the TERROR side and adult of the dream world, and oh jeez that one will give you the heebie jeebies.

You're so right about that clip! Ghibli under Miyazaki excels in both emotions, but obviously prefers to focus on delight, especially recently...they did rather take the teeth out of Howl's Moving Castle, unfortunately. I thought the ending of the Nemo video was a great smack of strangeness right in the face. Why can't it be realll and coming out this year...;_;

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